If Americans can rebel over tea, British expats can certainly consider rebelling over strange-tasting chocolate.
Photograph: H Mark Weidman Photography/Alamy

Many Brits in America make it their business to know where they can buy their comforts from home: decent tea, biscuits (cookies), sweets (candy) – and anything made in Britain by Cadbury.

One such oasis is the Two for the Pot shop in posh Brooklyn Heights. American proprietor John McGill, whose well-heeled British customers have included author Martin Amis, is still digesting the bad news about a Hershey lawsuit designed to ban Cadbury goods imported from the UK.

Hershey spokesman Jeff Beckman said major Cadbury importer LBB Imports “was importing products from the UK that were not intended for sale in the United States and infringe on The Hershey Company’s brand trademark rights and trade dress”.

Beckman said LBB “recently signed a settlement agreement and agreed to discontinue importing … these infringing products”. LBB did not respond to questions for this story from the Guardian.

McGill said that when word of the lawsuit got out, “the warehouses emptied quickly” of Cadbury’s goods from Britain.

He said most of his British regulars consider Cadbury “superior” to Hershey, to put it mildly.

“I have a lot of customers who greatly prefer the English Cadbury to any version the Hershey company produces,” said McGill. “There are other British sweets I will be able to sell … but Cadbury really is the biggest name. Many of the favorite things are made by Cadbury.”

Even though Cadbury is no longer a UK-owned company – after Hershey declined to make a bid, the near-200 year old firm is now part of the massive American group Mondelez International – the expats are hooked on the “British” way of making chocolate.

Another British shop, Tea & Sympathy in Manhattan’s Greenwich Village, has started a petition on its Facebook page against the Hershey lawsuit.

“Due to legal action by the so called chocolate maker Hershey’s, we can no longer import the real Cadbury chocolate from England,” said a statement on the Facebook page.

“They want us to sell their dreadful Cadbury approximation but we can’t in good conscience sell you such awful chocolate when we have made our reputation on selling you the yummy real English stuff.”

Make no mistake, this is a blow to the already tender British palate. British expats in the United States have long accepted that it’s almost impossible to get a decent cup of tea. What passes for tea even in sophisticated New York – lukewarm sawdust water – would disgust most Brits.

But there has always been imported Cadbury chocolate – proper, British-made chocolate with plenty of cocoa that is rich, creamy and crumbly – to soothe the soul and restore some British sanity to their frenzied American experience.

When Cadbury was hard to come by, expats could always get their fix from other British goodies made at home like Kit Kats, Rolos, Maltesers, Toffee Crisps or Yorkie bars.

Until now.

Beckman confirmed that Hershey manufactures Cadbury’s iconic Dairy Milk bar for the US market as part of a licensing deal but uses a slightly different recipe.

This simply will not do for many expats and other fans, who prefer British-made Cadbury bars due to their higher milk and cocoa content.

The grumbling is hard to ignore now that British expats may now be forced to eat the “American” Cadbury, or even replace their heavenly Cadbury experience with Hershey’s own branded chocolate products that Brits say “smell like stinky feet” and taste like “plastic”.

British-born editor Nicola McCormack, who lives in Brooklyn, is appalled at news of the lawsuit. “You often find Hershey’s Kisses in kids’ party bags here,” said McCormack.

“Since children’s parties are a bit of a trial, I usually steal the candy from my kids’ bags on the walk home. They smell like stinky feet, so you have to be pretty desperate for sugar to actually put it in your mouth. Every time I regret it immediately and spit it out. Every time.”

An acquired taste, then?

Nope, said Jim Gillon, a Scottish teacher who spends summers in the United States working in the summer camp industry.

“I can’t understand why anyone who had tasted proper chocolate would ever buy Hershey’s,” said Gillon. “Hershey’s is fine until you begin eating it. It’s like eating plastic. It’s the only chocolate we would consider using for making s’mores at camp fires because you wouldn’t use good chocolate for that.”

Ouch.

A more balanced view perhaps came from Manhattan music teacher Angela Jaeger, a native New Yorker who has also lived in London: “I was brought up on Hershey’s … Then I tried a Cadbury’s fruit and nut bar and could tell the chocolate was just richer and had substance … But I will say there’s nothing like a Hershey’s Kiss.”